I don’t hate the First Class flyers per se, but I hate air travellers, en masse with the heat of a thousand suns!!
Why in the hell are planes still boarded front to rear!!! Every other person tries to ignore the size and number of carry-on restrictions!! I becoming enraged just thinking about this!!!
'course, I just got off a flight this morning.
I’ve flown business/first several times and I always feel mildly guilty about it because I know my fellow passengers are crammed in cargo. Not guilty enough to give up my seat to one of them, mind you, but guilty nevertheless.
In partial response to Machine Elf’s points above.
I AM willing to pay more for leg room and space. What I am not willing to pay is 4 times as much as an economy ticket for that leg room. If there is an Economy Plus or equivalent ticket that allows me to pay a bit more for leg room, I’ll purchase that every time. I’m 5’11" and have bad joints. It can be very painful to be crammed into what passes for an airline seat these days. If first class weren’t ridiculously more expensive than Economy, I would choose it every time.
I never used to be niggardly when it came to purchasing airline tickets. If it cost a little more to get a better time/seat/route, etc., I didn’t mind paying a reasonable upcharge for such things. What made me niggardly was the airline withdrawing even the slightest of comforts, jamming me into inadequate space, holding my luggage hostage, etc. If they were going to be that way about it, I’d be damned if I was going to let them profit from it in any way. I’d buy the cheapest ticket I could find and do anything I could to circumvent any of their surcharges for services.
I suppose I do, then, in my way, contribute to the airline continuing to provide cheap tickets and poor inflight experiences. But if they ever see fit to offer some sort of middle ground between dirt cheap/rotten experience and ridiculously expensive/better experiences, I’ll be the first in line. If that means going back to '70s or '80s type prices, I’m all for that, too.
This is more or less where I am. I’ll go for the stretch seating whenever I can. When I can get the stretch seating, I don’t feel guilty about reclining a little bit. I would never do that in a ‘regular’ seat. Anyway, found out that Frontier is now charging x-tra for exit seats because they do have more leg room… of course those don’t recline and have the crappy in the arm-of-the-seat tray tables.
Frontier is just the worst of the worst. I’m embarrassed that they call Denver home. You could get a better inflight experience by pitching a lawn chair in the hold of a cargo plane crammed tightly with crates.
They used to be much better. They are affiliated with Spirit now and apparently it’s a race to the bottom.
My Wife and I have Frontier rewards CC’s and that used to work pretty well. You USED to be able to use your points for seat upgrades (stretch) and also bag fees. Not anymore. We will be looking at other options for a rewards card, and will avoid Frontier when we can.
On the very very rare occasions I fly (once every couple of years at least) I save up as much as I can to fly business. I’m big enough that I need a seat belt extender and I’d rather pay the extra to be able to relax a bit more. Because the one time I flew coach I was miserable the whole time trying my best not to make the people next to me squished or uncomfortable. Yeah it’s stupidly more expensive but if I have to be on a plane for 10 hours, I’d rather not spend the whole time stressing about whether or not I’m making someone else uncomfortable.
For long flights I pay for a business class seat. At 6’4" I generally cannot fit into an economy class seat.
I’ve never seen air rage, but I was present when the cabin crew talked a drunk rigger in the seat across the aisle from me off the plane before departure.
Slightly OT:
I’m puzzled by the strong emphasis that lots of folks (obviously including here) put on early boarding. I’ve always felt the advantage lay in minimizing the time spent crammed into an aluminum tube. So I usually try to be the last person to board (though without pushing it to the point that I’m holding things up).
This often means gate-checking my carry-on bag - but I haven’t yet had a problem with this. An occasional advantage on a less-than-full flight is that you can grab a better seat (e.g. window, with no one in the middle) as no one will be coming along after you to claim it.
I reserve my hatred for the airlines who have squeezed every nickel out of their passengers. Back in the good old days when economy seats were reasonably big and you got food. Very little rage then except maybe for drunks.
Back when frequent flier programs were new we got free first class tickets on United from Newark to Honolulu. On the way back they were short a seat so I wound up in coach while my wife stayed in First. The first class cabin was filled by Honda salesmen who were partying all night, so I got better sleep than she did.
I fly Southwest whenever I can, which luckily is just about always.
My fondness for the airline started in 2007. DH and I flew to San Diego to see my mother for Thanksgiving week and Southwest happened to have the cheapest fares. Unfortunately while we were there my mother fell and broke her wrist, needing surgery. We decided to move hubby’s flight home back a day, and mine a week so I could take care of her. The change fees we figured would be high, but it was worth it.
No change fees. I was astounded.
Southwest also allows every passenger 2 free checked bags. We moved Mom to a retirement center near Chicago the next February. Hubby and I shared one large bag for the trip, Mom had some of her things shipped, and ended up with six bags to go with her, so we ended up having to pay for only one.
There aren’t any reserved seats on Southwest, but this actually seems to work for us. We’re always careful to check in online the earliest we possible can, and we always seem to have a choice of acceptable seats.
The only real disadvantage for us is that Southwest flies out of Midway and Ohare is significantly closer to our home.
not a safe assumption; I’ve flown first class several times, and it was all due to points/status I accrued traveling for work. i.e. I didn’t pay a darn thing for it.
Some good points Xema. Never done the free for all seating. I would like to sit next to my Wife. And visa/versa. She is a bit of a nervous flyer.
My Wife and I have a great system of taking just what is allowed in the overhead, and under the seat in front of you. We have become experts at packing. If we can’t, we check bags, no problem. But if you are on a trip that has to go through customs, or has many stops, public transportation and itineraries, it’s great to pack light.
Some things I noticed and have had happened…
The boarding of the front rows first is to prevent people that sit in the back from putting their bags in the overheads over the front and then walking to the seats in the back. This REALLY screws things up #I hate this assholisum).
Boarding last may not get you a gate checked bag. But your bag may be stuffed in an overhead not close to you by a steward… Causing…
An elderly Japanese couple mistaking your bag for theirs and trying to take it off the plane. The language barrier was complete, and he thought I was trying to steal his bag when I stopped him. It makes for a memorable story, but one I try to avoid.
It’s amazing how many people don’t pay attention to detail. I’ve been on flights that were late. The steward asked who had connections to x,y,z. They raised their hands. The steward said that those AND ONLY those folks get off first. Everyone else must stay seated. You can guess what happened when the seat belt light went off. We went through this drill three times until the pilot came on and threatened action to anyone that gets off with out a connecting flight.
Well, you (or your employer) kinda did - by previously spending money with that airline.
Every time this happens, very few people stay seated. It is selfish and it sucks
I usually fly economy but sometimes have been upgraded to 1st. Sure it’s cushy, I like it.
Once when I was in economy, we were deplaning and I noticed how messy 1st class was. Trash everywhere, blankets and pillows on the floor, it was pretty bad. I looked up and the flight attendant caught my eye to say Thank you, have a nice day. I made a comment about the mess and she said Yeah, 1st class fliers are the worst, it’s usually a mess.
That particular situation was a bad one but I’ve noticed that 1st class is frequently messy.
Inconsiderate pigs.
We’ve become spoiled in this age of air travel and discount tickets. No matter what deprivation one is faced with – and I say this while remembering the too-narrow seat I could barely fit into on the Tokyo-NYC leg of a trip four years ago – you only have to endure it for a few hours. Think about what people having to get to the other side of the world by boat or across vast land distances had to suffer for days or weeks at a time in days gone by. My grandfather, who was born in 1876, listed under “Accomplishments” on his Columbia University update in the 1920s that he had crossed the continental US by train X number of times.
Are you guys talking about a true 1st Class or more of a Business Class?
The inconsiderate pigs I’m talking about are true 1st class.
see the plot I linked to in post #19: back in the good old days when economy seats were reasonably big and you got food, air travel was much more expensive. Airlines are not squeezing every nickel out of you these days; as in the past, you get what you pay for. Want more leg room? Try Economy Comfort Plus, for a $50 upcharge. Want food? Buy the lunch box for $8. Now you’re getting the same perks you got back in 1990, and your flight, even with those fees tacked on, still costs you less than it did back then.
Quite so.
I assume that air travel may involve some delays and others getting priority over me. So I have a good book and a relaxed attitude…